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2Saint's January Tournament Recap

Fri 23rd Feb 2018 - 10:54pm : Gaming

**NOTE: Despite the Mentality website displaying otherwise, this article was written by Kaeon. Enjoy!

2saint is a Top 100 Melee competitor from Rockland County, NY. He is a sophomore in college studying Biology at SUNY Albany. In 2017, 2saint joined Team Mentality and has been making strides ever since.

Hello readers! My name is Kaeon and this piece is dedicated to one of Team Mentality’s biggest up-and-comers: 2saint. Last month, after he saw his debut on the prestigious MIOM Top 100, he had an incredible few tournaments that followed. It started with Scorpius, a Long Island regional early in January, where 2saint displayed some of his best efforts as a competitor and a team player. With a little help from Cody “iBDW” Schwabb, he earned 4th in singles, 2nd in doubles, and 1st in crews among an array of talented Tristate competitors. He eliminated Darktooth, Codi, and Knut from the singles bracket, all of who represent Long Island’s topmost talent. After 2saint and iBDW swept through the loser’s bracket earning them 2nd in doubles, the 5-man squad “We won” united him with New York City to take 1st in crews.

Just the week after, 2saint would travel to Seattle to continue his Genesis 5 preparation. His outstanding performance at Emerald City 6 showcased some great play by his Jigglypuff, first in pools by beating Iceman 2-1, then later in bracket after taking out NMW, R2DLiu, and Spud each with a convincing 3-0. It ended in a strong 2nd place finish for him in singles, having only incurred set losses to Bladewise. iBDW and 2saint shut out every other team that weekend aside from Bladewise and NMW, placing them at a very commendable 2nd in doubles.

Finally, at Genesis 5, the preparation paid off for 2saint. In singles, he defeated Squid and Liquid | Ken to advance into Top 64 of singles bracket through loser’s side. Despite beating the legendary King of Smash, 2saint’s crowned Jigglypuff would lose to Captain Faceroll for a decisive 49th place finish. His doubles performance with iBDW was stopped short by Rustin and Iceman for 33rd, yet this was just the first of many big tournaments for their team this year. I talked to 2saint about his year and how he’s been keeping up with the rest of the competition.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Throughout the first year that you became more focused on smash, how did Team Mentality come in and become more of a role in your life?

They have literally set the path for what I'm going for right now. When I went to CEO Dreamland, that was where I got noticed. Basically, it's in the title, these guys keep my mentality right, all the time, because I can be such a noncompetitive person. When I try to be competitive and I lose, I crash hard. But they always bring me back on my feet.

Aside from CEO Dreamland, were there any other good tournaments for you in 2017?

The Tristate Invitational for sure. That was probably the highlight of my year. Only losing to yourself, Kaeon. I’m sure you remember the round-robin tiebreaker. Animal was beating Smuckers, Smuckers was beating me, and I was beating Animal. It was just back-and-forth, and I can't believe I was the one to break the chain. I was so sure that at one point Animal was figuring me out. I think [for] a best-of-1, variance is really there, it just takes one down b to end the game. I feel like if I missed that against Smuckers I would've lost.

I really enjoyed Shine, but I'm not sure if I enjoyed it as a competitor. I enjoyed it more as an experience in traveling. It really opened my eyes to the world and showed me that I should enjoy life. Enjoy the scenery. I never really traveled that much, I only went with my parents as a kid and they stopped doing it when I was 11 or 12. Now I'm doing it on my own, I'm doing it with friends, and I'm meeting new people.

Does anyone coach you at these events?

Usually. I have friends or homies helping me out, it's been kind of on a rotation. It used to be Mafia, but he used to get further in bracket than me, so he couldn't really do it. Then it would be Cody, Cody would help me out a lot, but usually we're never at the same tournament so he would message me and help me out that way. And as of recently, at Genesis, now and at all tournaments for here on in, Bailey is helping me out, AKA EE | Nightwing.

Do you feel like you get enough of a break from school when you're a Melee competitor?

Yeah, I do feel like I get enough of a break. I always feel like when I come back from an event I can go back into school better than I was prior. I would see my friends at tournaments, and smash friends, I feel like those are real friends. My other friends, they're cool and all, but there's not much of a glue holding us together. Smash, it's holding me and a bunch of other people together as a whole across the country.

But what about the glue in your hands? I see you stretch and rotate your hands a lot when you're playing. Do you have hand pain? What do you do to manage that?

I have hand pain, yeah. I stretch my hand habitually, and almost mindlessly at this point. Outside of sets, I'm always just pretty much stretching my hands.

Do you have anything that you want to add?

I want to add for any like, lower level players out there, y'know, just keep grinding. You'll get there eventually, and also don't be afraid of top players, you can beat them up.

2saint will be attending Flatiron 3 this spring and Shine, Smash Con, and CEO in the summer. This year so far has been an excellent start for 2saint and we hope to see him continue to accomplish his goals. You can follow him on Twitter @2saintt and on twitch.tv/xx2saintxx.To keep up with us, Team Mentality, and the rest of our players, follow us @MnTEsports.#ClearMentality

Don

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